Skill Acquisition Flashcards (3.4-3.6)

What is reaction time?

The amount of time between a stimulus and the first movement initiated in response to it —> refers to the athletes ability to process information and react

Reaction time process

Brain receives info from the senses —> brain processes this info —> formulates a response —> transits this response to the motor units (nerves & muscle fibres) —> muscles contract (the reaction)

What is movement time?

The time taken to complete the task after it has been initiated

-Begins when the body has started reacting

-Finishes when movement of the body completes the task

What is response time?

Reaction time + movement time

-Time taken from the initial stimulus to the completion of the task

Why is reaction time important?

Athletes with faster reaction times have an advantage over athletes in many activities:

-Can initiate movements faster

-Faster reaction time = faster response time

Is reaction time more important in open or closed skills?

Open

-due to being able to adapt and react to unpredictable aspects of the open environment

What are the two types of reaction time?

-Simple reaction time

-Choice reaction time

What is simple reaction time?

When there is only one stimulus to react to and only one correct response

-only requires one specific response

-quick

What is choice reaction time?

The interval of time that elapses between the presentation of one of several possible stimuli and the beginning of one of several responses

-performer must first identify the stimulus

-then they must choose the appropriate response

-the more information to process, the slower the reaction time

What are the stages of choice reaction time?

-detection

-decision

-response organisation

What is Hick’s Law?

As the number of alternatives increase, so does reaction time

-maintains that there is a linear relationship between reaction time & the amount of information to be processed

How does age affect reaction time & decision making?

Reaction time is at its fastest when you are aged 19-30 years

-children under 10 and adults over 60 have a slower reaction time then the remaining population

-reaction time begins to decrease after the mid 20’s

How does gender affect reaction time & decision making?

Males have a shorter reaction time than females, but the increase in reaction time is because of age is slower in females

How does the intensity of the stimulus affect reaction time & decision making?

Increase in intensity = decrease in reaction time

-bright coloured, noisy or larger stimulus

How does the probability of a stimulus occuring affect reaction time & decision making?

Anticipation is the skill related to predicting when a stimulus will occur

-effectively reduces reaction time as you can be pre-prepared for it

-unpredictable stimuli = longer reaction time

How does the presence or absence of warning signals affect reaction time & decision making?

You can reduce reaction time by recognising the signals that indicate a movement is about to take place

How does signal detection affect reaction time & decision making?

Signal detection = an athelete’s ability to determine whether or not a cue or stimulus is present will impact their ability to initiate a response

-if cue isn’t strong or sense organs are unable to detect a stimulus, the processing of information will be impacted

How does previous experience affect reaction time & decision making?

Enables a performer to pick up appropriate cues more quickly & easily, thus reducing their reaction time due to continuous practice overtime at developing reaction time & decision making

How does selective attention affect reaction time & decision making?

Your senses detect stimuli you may be unaware of

-ability to filter out irrelevant cues (noise)

-effectively reduces the number of incoming stimuli that need to be processed, which reduces processing time

Psychological refractory period

A delay in response to a second stimulus when that stimulus is presented shortly after the first

-the successive presentation of cues

Stimulus response compatibility

The degree of correspondence between a stimulus and its correct response
-the greater the compatibility, the shorter the response

-if the response is the one you expect, you will react more quickly

-if the response is not expected, reaction time will be longer

-practice & feedback from a coach will help a learner to determine the correct response to each situation in a game

How can practice effect choice reaction time?

The greater the amount of practice, the shorter the choice reaction time will be

-with increased practice, the amount of increase in reaction time & number of s-r increases becomes less

-nature of practice = important as practice with the same s-r combinations increases

-the same stimulus always leads to the same response, leading choice reaction to become faster

Anticipation

The process by which a performer prepares to initiate a particular response before the appearance of the appropriate signal

-anticipation = the only way to effectively reduce reaction time

Spatial/event anticipation

Prediction about what will happen in the environment

-prediction in this manner allows players to organise a response in advance so they can initiate a response more quickly

Temporal/time anticipation

Predicting when an environmental event will occur

-more important to anticipate what is going to happen to organise movements, than it is to predict when it will occur

What are the benefits of anticipation

-can provide an athlete with strong advantage in the performance of many skills

-being able to predict play (spatial anticipation) and when it is going to occur (temporal anticipation) —> being prepared to initiate an already planned it movement without any delay in RT

What factors effect anticipation?

-regularity of events

-perceptual cognitive skills

-individual differences

-contextual information

What are the disadvantages of anticipation?

-sometimes the anticipated event will not occur

-event may occur at a different time than was expected, therefore delaying your response

-possibly preparing the incorrect movement or response —> takes time to unprepare that movement due to PRP

What is the ability to recall information based on?

Based on the amount of encoding that occurs as information passes from the external environment through a series of storage sites in the brain to then end up in the long-term memory

What are the three sites to store memories?

-short-term sensory storage (up to 1 second)

-short-term memory (only for 60 seconds)

-long-term memory (permanently)

Short-term sensory storage

Has the ability to receive a lot of information, retain it for 1 second and then relay the important information to the second stage (short-term memory)

-information not relayed to the short-term memory in this brief time will be lost

-selective attention will increase the capacity of these storage areas to filter out irrelevant signals or cues (auditory, visual, tactical information etc)

-this stage of memory helps to explain how some athletes seem to know what they are doing without looking

-it is believed that STSS occurs before conscious involvement by the performer, therefore entailing very little processing

Short term memory

Has a limited capacity, and gives you the ability to recall information immediately after you have been exposed to it

-information received by the STM is either lost or transferred to the next stage (long-term memory)

Short term memory & the influence of selective attention

Information that passes from the STSS into the STM is usually the most relevant to the learner/performer

-an individual’s selective attention mechanism selects some of the information from the STSS for further processing, with the remaining being lost or replaced

-if beginner players are presented with too much information they won’t be able to retain it all & key elements of a skill will be lost & extend the skill acq process'

-too detailed of a game plan for experienced players may overload them and lead to errors in competition

What can STM be improved by?

Chunking

-putting single pieces of data together into groups. We then remember the groups which contain more information than just the individual items

OR

-breaking down complex tasks or situations into smaller, more manageable parts to improve learning, performance, and memory

What is the accepted range of items of information for STM?

5-9 items

Relevance & meaningfulness

Athletes find it easier to remember information if it is relevant to them and what they are attempting to achieve

-information is more easily transferred to your STM if the information has meaning to you & is relevant to the task

-level of interest also has an affect of STM —> easier to understand & learn from instructors that are appropriate to the athletes’ age & level of development

Interference/distractions

Noise can interfere with your ability to concentrate on sensory information and transfer it to the STM

Chunking or coding increases…

The number of items we are able to remember by creating meaningful sections in which many related factors are stored as one

Rehearsal or practice

Information must be rehearsed for it to be transferred into the STM

-vital for rehearsal to occur as soon as possible following presentation of a cue

-practice of a physical skill allows you to better process & remember motor information and also to correct & refine your performance of that skill

Overloading

Because the STM is limited to 5-9 items of information which can only be retained for around 60 seconds, any number of stimuli above this will mean that certain information is lost as capacity is overloaded

-instructions for a beginner should be brief, to the point & should be given when the learner’s attention is guaranteed

Long-term memory

LTM exists for information that has been repeated or rehearsed

-is the permanent storage area of encoded information

-contains information about past experiences & movement patterns which may be compared with information about new stimuli

-LTM memory capacity is limitless —> holds information & experiences; and is believed to be vast in capacity & unlimited in duration

Encoding (practice)

Refers to the similarity between the situations in which we acquire a skill/information and the situations in which we have to perform/recall it at a later date

-most easily achieved in closed skill situations

What is LTM influenced by?

-meaningfulness of the information

-rehearsal & over (or repeat) learning)

What is an important element of LTM?

schema

Schema

Rules in which we learn in order to execute skills in differing environments

Rehearsal

To ensure relevant items are stored in the LTM, a coach should ensure skills are rehearsed & repeated

-skills should be taught in a manner in which they are meaningful to the participant

-compared to beginners, the advanced performer organises information more efficiently and can detect the functional relationship between what to do and how to do it more effectively

What is feedback?

All the information an athlete receives about the result or process of an activity either during the performance or at its completion

-the learner uses information about their performance from intrinsic or extrinsic sources, and alters their action to improve their skill level

-this learning process is cyclic & allows the individual to refine the skill

What are the three theories about why feedback works?

it:

-motivates (KR & KP feedback makes the task seem more interesting, keeps the learner alert & results in learners setting high performance goals & makes tasks more enjoyable)

-reinforces (feedback can reinforce efficient motor programs & schema —> KR will reinforce that the movement they have developed is working efficiently)

-regulates or changes the performance (guides the learner on ways to move more efficiently)

-informs & improves future performance (assists players to improve future performances)

What are the two sources of feedback?

Intrinsic & extrinsic

Intrinsic feedback

Includes kinaesthetic feedback, and is the sensory information that arises as a natural consequence of producing a movement

-comes from the senses both during and after a movement pattern

Extrinsic feedback

Information provided to the learner from an outside source

What are the two main categories of feedback - nature of feedback

knowledge of results & knowledge of performance

Knowledge of results feedback

Feedback which provides information about the outcome of a performance rather than the movements that brought about the performance

-essential for learning to take place

-extremely important in the cognitive & associative stages of learning

-the more precise the feedback, the better the outcome should be

Knowledge of performance feedback

A form of extrinsic feedback (usually verbal) that indicates the technical correctness or quality of the movement

-information about the movement pattern that the athlete has performed either correctly or incorrectly

What are the two major categories of the way feedback can be timed?

Continuous & terminal

Continuous feedback

Feedback which is provided from many sources during the execution of skills

Terminal feedback

Feedback which is provided after a skill has been performed